Talking To An Angel
by Ultrawoman
Summary: After Hyde cheats on Jackie at the end of Season 5, the angel that once visited Eric descends once again to show Hyde what could’ve been if he’d never let Jackie into his life at all. A happy JH ending guaranteed.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N : Okay, confession time, I actually wrote this over the Christmas/New Year break. Not sure where it came from, just an idea that formed in my head over a couple of days and demanded to be written. Still, when it was done, I didn't quite feel ready to post it. Since I've now finished posting 'Something Better Than This' and it got a good response from those that read/reviewed, I think it's time to give this a go. Just a short piece, one part posted now, the other to follow next Sunday, since I'd like to get some reaction to the beginning first. I trust you peops to tell me - does it rock or does it suck?**

_**Disclaimer : All recognisable characters from 'That 70's Show' do not belong to me in any way at all.**_

* * *

**Talking To An Angel**

PART 1 of 2

"I can't take this, man!" Steven Hyde yelled at no-one in particular as he sat on his bed with his head in his hands, "How did I end up like this?!" he asked rhetorically, jumping violently when someone actually answered his question.

"You fell in love, that's how" said the short bearded man in the white suit who now stood beside him, having seemingly appeared from nowhere.

"What the hell?!" Hyde exclaimed, looking over at the freaky guy, "Did I smoke more than I thought today?" he checked, trying to recall.

Maybe that new stuff he'd bought was more 'special' than he'd reckoned on.

"Steven Hyde" the bearded guy smiled, hands clasped behind his back, "Well now, you are an interesting case" he said with a sigh, "You were barely on our radar for a while there, but since you fell in love with Jackie Burkhart, you've definitely changed, and now you need our help"

"Look man, I don't know who the frickin' hell you are, but you got the wrong guy" Hyde explained as he got to his feet, "I don't need anybody's help, and as for love, I don't think I even know what that is"

"Steven" the white-suited man sighed, "Love is what you and Jackie felt for each other, perhaps what you still feel..."

"Okay, now you're pissing me off" Hyde said suddenly turning on the stranger with an angry look, pointing a finger in his face, "Nobody calls me Steven, and nobody tells me what I feel, okay, freakazoid?" he said threateningly.

His eyes nearly popped out of his head when the guy he was yelling at disappeared and suddenly reappeared behind him, tapping his shoulder to get his attention.

"When you're quite finished being rude and obnoxious" he rolled his eyes at the younger man, "I might explain to you why I'm here"

"Yeah?" Hyde pretended to look like he cared before letting the expression slide, "Well, I might not care why you're here, so how about you save us both some time and just scram already" he suggested.

"I suppose I could" the stranger looked to be considering it, before meeting Hyde's eyes and smiling, "Or I could fulfil my job as an angel, and help you like I was sent here to do"

"An angel?" Hyde scoffed, not really believing it at all, "I saw a more heavenly body when Big Rhonda followed us to the swimming baths" he smirked at his own joke, but the apparent angel looked so serious, "Damn, what kind of freaky trip am I even on?" Hyde asked himself, looking away and rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand.

"Okay, time for the big guns" the angel sighed, and when Hyde turned around he found the little guy in white to be floating three feet off the ground, glowing with a bright light, a ring of gold about his head.

"What the...?!" he began but was too stunned to even finish the sentence.

"Steven James Hyde" the angel said sweetly, or as sweetly as a short, hairy, freakish guy could say anything, "Blessed and misguided child" he continued, "I have been summoned here to ease your broken heart, and ensure a mistake that has been made is mended"

Hyde watched curiously and with confusion as the light dissipated and the angel floated back down to the ground, landing beside him.

"Okay" he said, thumbs in his belt-loops as he looked the other guy over, "Let's say for a minute that you are an angel" he considered, "Why would you wanna help a guy like me out?"

"The world is not as it should be anymore" the angel explained with a shake of his head, "Plans that the almighty powers that be had were ruined by interference from the other side" he explained, a finger pointing downwards.

"What does that have to do with me?" Hyde asked, still not understanding, "I got my own problems to worry about"

"Your problems are our problems, Ste..., er, Hyde" the angel corrected himself as the menace returned to Hyde's eyes, "For the world to be in alignment, to be balanced and as it should be, you must be with your true love"

"Tough luck, Colonel Sanders" Hyde sneered, "I don't have a true love, I don't even have a fake love anymore" he yelled, "Me and Jackie, we're through, forever" he explained angrily.

"You don't mean that" the angel told him calmly, which only made Hyde more mad about the whole thing.

"Yeah, actually, I do mean that!" he shouted, right in the messengers face, "In fact, I wish I never let Jackie Burkhart get so close to me! That stupid damn Prom, that was when this started, I wish I'd never took her there!"

"Fine, that's the way you want it, then that's the way it'll be" the angel told him with a nod.

Hyde was soon much calmer, and again confused.

"What?" he asked looking baffled, "What, are you just gonna snap your fingers and re-write history?" he asked, seemingly amused by now.

"I am an angel" he was reminded by the shorter man, "I have the power to do almost anything" he explained, "You wish you never took Jackie Burkhart to your Junior Prom? Well, how about we take a look at what your life might've been if you never had" he said, with some distaste at their surroundings.

"Sure, why not?" Hyde shrugged, standing toe to toe with the angel, accepting what he took to be some kind of challenge, "Take me to the happy place where Jackie never bugged me, or cried on me, or made me think I actually had feelings for her"

"Very well" the angel smiled, "Here we go..."

* * *

1977

(Prom Week)

* * *

"Look Hyde" Jackie was saying, as a future version of Hyde along with his angel guide appeared behind the couch, "I know we've had our differences" she told the younger Steven, "but..." 

"Jackie" he interrupted her, as his older-self watched in astonishment, it was hard to believe this was really happening, that he was watching himself and Jackie play out a scene he remembered so well, "We've had nothing but differences! In fact, don't we kind of hate each other?" the '77 Hyde told the girl beside him, the much more vulnerable Jackie that wasn't much seen anymore in the time Hyde had travelled back from to see all this again.

"Yes, but this is the Prom!" the little brunette cried, leaning forward, her head not quite landing on Hyde's shoulder as he swiftly got up from the couch and walked away.

His future self looked between the two shadows of the past, then at the angel, and back at himself as he walked away up the basement steps.

"That never happened" he said shaking his head, "I didn't walk out on her, and she... man, she was really crying" he winced as he looked down at Jackie, all tear-stained and apparently genuinely upset by now.

"You said you wished you never took her to Prom" the angel shrugged his shoulders, "You thought life would be better if you hadn't, so here it is, kid, your wish come true"

"Jackie..." Hyde said more to himself than to her as she sobbed into her hands.

He reached a hand out to her shoulder but the angel stopped him making contact.

"She can't hear you, or feel you," he rolled his eyes, "dumbass" he muttered under his breath as Hyde glared at him, "This is what could've been, Hyde, not what is. We're just observers, we're not a part of this"

"Whatever, man" Hyde shook his head, retracting his hand and using it to push his hair back instead, "So what now? You fixed it, we go back to the future, and everything's okay, right? I never took Jackie to Prom, my life is fixed"

"Oh, you think it's that simple, huh?" the angel smirked, "Wrong, Mr Hyde" he told him with a shake of the head, putting his hand on the boy's shoulder, "Oh so very wrong"

* * *

1977

(a few weeks later)

* * *

"Now what?" Hyde asked the angel as they suddenly appeared in the Formans' living room. 

"Listen, watch, and learn" he was instructed by the man in white who pointed towards the door.

"I'm not afraid of anything, and I'm going!" Hyde heard his younger self yell as he stormed in from the kitchen, almost bowling over Jackie who was coming the other way with a drink in her hand.

"Hyde!" she squealed, "You almost made me spill this on my expensive clothes, you idiot!" she complained.

"Oh, I'm so sorry" Hyde dead-panned, though the edge of anger in his tone spoilt the effect.

He was going to walk straight across the room and out of the front door, but her voice calling to him made him stop.

"What's gotten you so mad?" she asked.

She shouldn't care, she knew she shouldn't. It wasn't like she and Steven Hyde were friends, in fact these days she barely spent any time in the basement with the gang, not since she and Michael had broken up and he'd taken Pam Macey to Prom. Jackie herself had not attended, and it was Hyde, her last resort, refusing to take her, that had made her really face up to the fact her life had changed. She'd hated him for it at first, but then she realised he'd actually helped her.

"Everybody thinks they can tell me what to do" Hyde complained from across the room, as his future self and the angel watched the scene unfold, "I'm not a kid anymore, I can do what I want"

"What do you want to do?" Jackie asked curiously as she moved across the room and put down Mrs Forman's drink on the table.

Hyde met her on the couch and they sat down together. He may as well talk to her, nobody else was listening. Maybe an outsiders view was what he needed and it wasn't like Jackie would care about him getting mugged or spat on in the Big Apple.

"I met this girl" he explained, "She's amazing, and she's going to New York to start a punk band. She asked me to go with her" he explained.

"Eeew" Jackie wrinkled her nose, "A punk band?"

"Why am I even talking to you?" Hyde rolled his eyes as he got up from the couch and made to walk away, realising what an idiot he'd been even contemplating having a serious conversation with the cheerleader.

"Hyde, wait" she urged him and he turned back, though he remained holding the front door open ready for a hasty exit, "You should follow your dreams while you have the chance. It's easy for dreams to get broken" Jackie told him, knowing it was true. She'd dreamt of a perfect life with Michael Kelso, but that vision had been shattered a while ago now.

"Thanks, Jackie" Hyde smiled at her, maybe the first genuine smile she'd ever seen on his face, "I'll see you around, doll" he said before finally leaving, as Jackie stared after him, a shaky smile on her lips.

"Okay, first of all" the future Hyde snapped at the angel, "Stop trying to make me feel bad by having Jackie all teary in every little 'movie scene' you show me" he told him, "and second, you just proved me right, man!"

"Really?" the angel asked with fake interest, "And how exactly did I do that?"

"I never took Jackie to the Prom, and now look at me" he gestured towards the door through which he had watched himself pass, "I'm headed to New York with Chrissy, livin' the dream!"

"Not quite" the angel shook his head, "Let's take a little hop and a skip forward, and see where things went from here..."

* * *

1978

* * *

"Where are we?" Hyde asked, as he and the angel popped up in a new location. 

"More specifically I think you mean 'when' are we" the apparent heavenly entity suggested, "and that would be just six short months after your escape to the Big Apple that never was"

"Never was?" Hyde frowned, opening his mouth to ask for an explanation but never actually doing it as he got his bearings and realised he was in the darkened surroundings of the Formans' basement and a figure of a young man he knew very well was just now waking up on the couch.

"Steven?" a voice called from above and suddenly Kitty appeared, moving around the couch to switch on the light and then coming back to address her son's friend, "Steven, honey, are you awake?"

"I guess, kind of" Hyde muttered from beneath his jacket and a blanket that appeared to have been haphazardly thrown over him, "What time is it?"

"Well, sweetheart, it's almost time for lunch" she said with that kind smile that she did so well, "Are you hungry?"

"I could eat" Hyde nodded as he pulled himself up from the couch and headed for the stairs.

"If you could just be a little quiet when you go up, Steven" Kitty urged himas he lurched awkwardly up the steps, "Eric's still in bed"

"What the hell is going on here?" the older version of Hyde asked his angelic companion, "Why are me and Forman both still sleeping in so late?" he checked, before the frown on his face turned into a grin, "Did we get wasted last night? Red must be steaming mad"

"Red's not here to yell, Hyde" the man in white explained, "All the shocks and stress he's had over the past few months have taken a toll"

"What do you mean by that?" Hyde asked, almost afraid of the answer, though he would never admit to such fear.

The angel didn't say a word, just clicked his fingers and landed the pair of them outside a hospital room. Through the closed doors Hyde could hear yelling in Red's own voice, calling the doctor a dumbass, and cursing everything in sight.

"I know I had a damn heart attack, but I don't wanna stay in this God forsaken place anymore!" he bellowed as Hyde looked stunned and turned to the angel beside him.

"Heart attack? This didn't happen" he frowned, "and there is no way it would just cos I didn't take Jackie to a stupid Prom!"

"Every action has a consequence, Hyde" his new 'friend' reminded him, "All the little things add up, and lead to big things"

"No, no way, I'm not buying this crap! I'm outta here" he declared, turning to walk away.

A snap of the angel's fingers brought him right back to where he started from at the end of the corridor.

"You didn't take Jackie to Prom, which meant she never saw Kelso there, and they never got back together" the bearded guy explained patiently to his far less patient companion, "Kelso stayed with Pam Macey, meaning he didn't feel the need to cheat with Laurie" he said, images of all this passing by Hyde as if he were walking through a movie, "Instead, Laurie used Fez, and an accident led to her being pregnant with his child" the angel told Hyde, who looked comically stunned at the sight of his little foreign friend and Forman's whoreish sister with an expanding belly, "At the same time, things got strained between Eric and Donna, she didn't have Jackie to turn to since she'd moved on to a new guy and didn't hang out at the basement anymore. Things just broke down between those two crazy kids, no one was around to help out or give advice, and before you know it, they were over"

"Damn" Hyde physically winced as he saw a muted version of his friends final argument as they broke up for good.

"All this took it's toll on Red, in a physical way" the angel said, as Hyde was forced to watch his father figure drop to the ground with pains to his chest, "and someone else in another way" he heard the angel's voice say as he watched himself, guzzling stolen beers and smoking way more than he was used to, not in a circle with his good friends, laughing and joking, but by himself in his back room of the basement, looking angry and upset all the time.

As the pictures faded from around him, Hyde was left standing in his basement bedroom, back where he'd started his journey with the angel.

"Okay, man, I get it, I learnt the crappy Christmas Carol lesson" he sighed, "If wishing I never took Jackie to Prom leads to all that pain for me and the world then I take it back, or whatever" he said with half-hearted enthusiasm as he moved to sit down on his bed.

The angel swiftly grabbed his arm and pulled him back to his feet.

"Oh no, you've only had half the lesson" the angel smirked, "You may have seen what the past might've been, but there's a place still left to face" he announced over-enthusiastically as he raised a hand to the ceiling and violently loud punk/rock music blared something about a White Wedding.

"What the hell?" Hyde asked, in the general direction of the ceiling from which the music seemed to emanate, though honestly the song sounded pretty cool.

"We're going into the future" the angel told him with a smile, "Hold on tight"

_  
...To Be Continued...  
_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N : Wow, so many reviews! It rocks that you all like my story, thanx so much! I just hope the second half is as popular...**_**  
(For disclaimer, etc. - see Part 1)**_

* * *

Talking To An Angel

PART 2 of 2

_"Oh no, you've only had half the lesson" the angel smirked, "You may have seen what the past might've been, but there's a place still left to face" he announced over-enthusiastically as he raised a hand to the ceiling and violently loud punk/rock music blared something about a White Wedding._

_"What the hell?" Hyde asked, in the general direction of the ceiling from which the music seemed to emanate, though honestly the song sounded pretty cool._

_"We're going into the future" the angel told him with a smile, "Hold on tight"_

* * *

1982

* * *

"Woah" Hyde gasped as he looked around at the scene he'd landed in, "Donna?" he said in astonishment as he watched her, the material of her white wedding dress swirling around her legs as she turned to reveal she was in fact heavily pregnant, "I thought you said her and Forman were over, man. Now they're getting married, and having a kid" Hyde smiled with self-satisfaction at the angel who looked less happy.

"Sure, that much is true" he agreed, "but keep watching"

Hyde did as he was told, for maybe the first time in his life, as Bob entered the Pinciottis' living room and faced his daughter.

"You okay, sweetheart?" he asked her, as the red-head sighed.

"I guess" she smiled half-heartedly, "I mean, I know we have to get married, it's the right thing, and it's not like I don't still love Eric, I do, it's just..." her voice wavered and she glanced away for a moment before turning back to her Dad, "I'm fine" she forced a smile, "Really, it'll be great"

"I'm not buyin' that tone, man" Hyde shook his head, almost in unison with his future self who appeared in the doorway just as Bob left through the other one.

"This wasn't exactly the plan" Donna admitted as he came over to hug her and she finally let the tears fall, "I just wish I knew for sure that this was Eric's baby"

"Donna, he already told you he wouldn't care either way" her friend told her as he rubbed her back, "He still loves you, doll, just like you still love him, right?"

"Yeah" the red-head admitted, sniffing as she pulled out of his arms, "How come you always know how to say what I need to hear, and you're always fixing up other couples problems, yet there's never a steady girl for you?"

"You're startin' to sound like a real Mrs Forman now" Hyde smirked as Donna popped him in the arm for his comment, "And it's cool y'know, one day maybe I'll find the woman I'm supposed to be with. Right now, I'm okay being just me" he told her, as Bob returned to the room and told his daughter and Hyde they were needed, the ceremony was about to start.

As they all left the room, Hyde turned to his angel companion.

"I guess I got over the depression, huh?" he said, "And without any help from Jackie, since I don't see her around here, and Donna just said I don't have a woman"

"You got through your rough times" the angel conceded, "all of you did, and all in all today is a pretty happy day..." he said as he waved a hand and the scene faded from the Pinciottis' house through a wedding ceremony before the two of them landed in the Formans' back yard where the reception was taking place.

Donna and Eric stood together, laughing and smiling, along with Kitty and Red who looked much better than he had in the last scene. Then there was a slightly over-weight Kelso with a less-hot Pam Macey, they didn't seem to be getting along so well, though the way they alternated from yelling to making out, Hyde could barely keep up. Finally Laurie and Fez shared the porch swing, a small child of five or six sitting between them giggling. Shockingly they looked the most happy of anybody there.

It was then Hyde spotted himself, standing in the corner of the yard, with a bottle of beer in his hand that he was swigging from every now and then. He wasn't wearing the tinted glasses that were so often glued to his face back in '78, and Hyde saw pain in his future-self's eyes as he watched the happy couples and families that lie before him. He was about to say something to the angel about it when the older version of himself seemed to suddenly need a break from the celebrations and slipped away out of the back gate.

Without thinking, Hyde followed himself and was almost as startled as his future-self when he bumped into a woman who'd been hovering just beyond the fence.

"Oh, I'm sorry" the little brunette apologised, "I was just... Oh my God, Steven Hyde?" she said suddenly, her hand going to her face as she looked at him with wide eyes.

"Do I know...?" he began to ask before realising who she was, "Oh man, Jackie Burkhart" he smiled, "It's been a while"

"It really has" she agreed with a nod, "I just, I heard that Donna and Eric were getting married, I thought I'd pop by, say congratulations" she explained, "but then I got this far and... it's silly really, I shouldn't even have come here, I mean, it's not like we were ever best friends or anything"

"You should still go in, say hi" Hyde told her, "Y'know I think Donna missed you when you stopped hanging out with us"

"I missed her too" Jackie admitted, "In fact, I kinda missed... y'know, everybody" she said at length, though the look in her eyes suggested she hadn't literally meant the whole gang, perhaps just the member of it to whom she was speaking.

"Yeah" Hyde said, shifting awkwardly, "Well, I should get back in there so, it was nice seeing you, Jackie" he said, holding out a hand for her to shake.

With her right hand preoccupied holding the purse on her shoulder, she offered her left, almost blinding Hyde with the ring on her finger.

"Wow, that's some rock" he said, almost bitterly, perhaps not just because Jackie was getting married and he cared about her, moreover because here was another person who was moving on with life, finding happiness, getting married, having kids.

The Hyde from the seventies wondered how he ever got to a place where he'd be jealous of people like that, but since he started dating Jackie he really had thought about the future a lot. He wouldn't admit it, but it was true, and this version of himself now had the same problem. He wanted a happy ever after future somehow, yet he knew he'd never have the kind of thing Eric and Donna, or Fez and Laurie had found. They'd known each other years, got to know each other so well. Donna was the only friend that Hyde had like that, and in his world he'd had Jackie...

As Jackie began to explain how she was marrying some rich guy just like she always wanted the scene grew blurry and faded to grey, til Hyde and the angel were standing in nothingness.

"What exactly are you trying to show me now?" he asked, almost angrily, "I get it, okay? I got it before and I told you I did! I shouldn't have wished never to date Jackie, my life would suck without her!" he yelled in frustration, "Just like it does anyway because I screwed up and cheated on her!"

"Hey now, don't shoot the messenger" the angel backed up a step, hands raised in surrender as Hyde came at him with a nasty expression, "Hyde, I told you before, knowing you need Jackie in your life is only half the lesson. We have one more trip to make, then hopefully you'll understand part two of the message"

"One more trip, huh?" he checked, still glowering, "Fine" he sighed in apparent defeat, "Let's take the trip, and then maybe you'll leave me the hell alone"

"Deal" the angel nodded once as the scene shifted again and the two men passed through time.

* * *

1988

* * *

"Steven Hyde, welcome to your ten year High School Reunion" the angel announced as they landed in a hall with a banner stating what this particular event was for.

"What the hell, man?" Hyde said for maybe the twentieth time on this trip, "What happened to Fez's hair?!"

"One day you'll understand" the angel assured him with a pat on the shoulder, as Fez walked by sporting a Flock of Seagulls do.

Eric was not far away with Donna, telling anybody who would listen about how happy they were now with great jobs, and a house, and kids. It seemed as though Kelso and Pam were still together, but only just, and neither had the looks they were famous for a decade ago.

"If I'm not at this thing, why am I here?" Hyde asked the angel with a frown, but his attention was soon taken by the woman who had just come through the door.

Jackie Burkhart was as beautiful ten years on as she was the day from which he'd travelled, and he was stunned by the sight of her in a tight black dress with bright coloured bows around her neckline and bare shoulders.

"Oh my God, Jackie Burkhart?" Donna gasped at the sight of the girl she had once been friends with, "Remember me? Donna Pinciotti?" she asked her, "Or should I say, Donna Forman" she grinned as the two women embraced.

"It's so great to see you guys again" Jackie smiled, "It's been way too long"

"It so has" Eric agreed, "You were the one person Donna hope we'd run into tonight, or at least one of the two people" he told her, his grin fading somewhat as he did so.

"Oh, who else did you wanna see?" Jackie was intrigued to know, as Hyde watched the scene unfold, wondering if it was him they were looking for.

If so, he was eager to know why he wasn't here, if the same fate had befallen him as his father, uncles, and cousins before him. That would mean that bars were stopping him from being here, or a pile of dirt in the graveyard.

"You remember Steven Hyde?" Donna asked her old friend as the young man in question physically winced. He almost didn't want to hear his fate.

"Y'know, I think I do" Jackie nodded, a ghost of a smile playing about her lips that Hyde couldn't quite understand, "In the meantime, I have something I should tell you. My name's not Jackie Burkhart anymore" she said and Hyde rolled his eyes as the subject was switched from him to the rings that adorned the little brunette's left hand. That engagement ring didn't look right though, not as big and shiny as it had when she showed the other him from '82...

"Wow" Donna gasped, "So, what do we call you now, if it's not Jackie Burkhart...?"

"Try Jackie Hyde" said a voice as a man appeared beside them.

Hyde was shocked by the sight of himself, looking overly clean and smart, dressed in a proper shirt with buttons, and a creamy white jacket with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. He'd dispensed with the glasses he so often hid behind in the seventies, and the grin he wore looked like it was about to split his face in two.

As the future Mr and Mrs Hyde hugged Eric and Donna and caught up on what had been happening in their lives, the younger Hyde turned to the angel.

"But she was engaged to some rich guy, and we barely knew each other in this world" he said with confusion written all over his face, "How did we end up married?"

"Does it really matter?" the angel shrugged, "The point is you're together, just like you're supposed to be, in spite of all the changes that were made in your lives"

"Which would mean the point of this whole lesson is..." Hyde began, looking from the angel to his much happier older self with his arm around Jackie who was also grinning, "This is fate, like my destiny, to be with Jackie?" he asked sounding a little unsure of himself.

"My God, I think he finally got it" the angel said joyously, hands and eyes raised to the heavens, "It took you long enough, kid" he told Hyde who was barely listening.

This was kind of a revelation, to think that a large part of his life was mapped-out and that Jackie was it. She was the woman he was supposed to be with, forever. As scary as that was on some levels, it felt good in other ways. Unfortunately, memories of the way the world really was came hurtling back as the angel took the two of them back to his bedroom in the basement where they landed with a soft thump.

"That was a pretty cool trip, man" Hyde told the angel, "and yeah, I guess it'd be okay to do the happy ever after thing with Jackie one day" he admitted, "but I screwed up. I didn't trust her, and then I cheated on her, so she can't ever trust me" he complained as he sat down on his bed, putting his head in his hands.

"Everybody makes mistakes, Hyde" the angel told him kindly, "but things can be fixed, you just have to want them to be"

"Yeah, but..." Hyde began to speak, but when he looked up to see the angel, he realised the man in the white suit was gone, "Huh" he said to himself as he looked around the empty room.

* * *

1978 - Present Day

* * *

"Go away, Steven!" Jackie yelled through the bedroom door, wishing Donna were here right now instead of out on a date with Eric.

She couldn't face Steven alone, she just couldn't. Despite what he'd done, she still loved him. As crazy as it was, she even kind of understood why he'd done what he had, cheating on her with that nurse.

It hurt a great deal to think he could do that to her, and yet Jackie knew as she thought back over the past months, how such a thing might easily have happened. Steven was so used to being screwed over, he expected it to happen, and when it did he was determined to not care, even though it was obvious he did. He went with that nurse to get back at Jackie when he thought she'd cheated with Kelso, and though she herself knew she would never do such a thing, Jackie could see why Hyde might wonder. Michael was pretty persuasive, and so gorgeous, plus there was all that history the two of them had, and the incident not so long ago when Jackie had referred to her ex as her boyfriend.

"Jackie, please" Steven called to her, "I need to talk to you, I need you to understand what happened, and how sorry I am" he told her.

It broke Jackie's heart to hear the pain in his voice. He almost never showed emotion like this, and he certainly hated to have to apologise.

"Sorry doesn't make it better, Steven!" she told him anyway, from her position on the bed, legs crossed and pillow hugged tight to her, as she looked towards the locked door.

"I know that, I know" he replied, as he sat down on the other side of the door and continued to talk to her, "But I have stuff to say and if you won't let me in to hear it, well then, I'll just have to sit here and tell you anyway" he told her determinedly.

"Whatever" she called to him, making him smirk as she tried to cover any real emotion with the Zen that he himself had taught her.

"A weird thing happened to me today" he said as he sat there with his back leaning against the bedroom door, "I got thinking about stuff, you and me, how things might be if we never got together, if you weren't in my life" he told her honestly, "And y'know what, Jackie? It'd really suck. Fact is, I can't imagine my life without you anymore, even when you're buggin' the hell out of me I'm still glad you're there, man" he smiled to himself, "I'm probably not explaining this well, I know a guy that could do a better job" he smirked, eyes going heavenward as he thought of the angel that had shown him the way today, "But the point is, Jackie, we belong together. Not you and Kelso, not me and... anybody else" he shook his head, "You and me, we're destined, babe. You gotta know that, hell, you were telling me this stuff way before we ever hooked up" he recalled, "Look, I know what I did was bad, but I meant what I said before... I love you" he said softly, so much in fact that she barely heard him.

By the time she'd taken in his words and scrambled to the door to open it, Jackie found Hyde was leaving.

"Steven" she called behind him and he stopped in his tracks, turning around to face her, "I... I'm not saying it back" she repeated words he'd once said to her, and he smirked in spite of himself at the sound of them from her lips, "I can't just forgive you so easily" she shook her head, "I never thought anything would hurt as much as the way Michael treated me but you..."

"I am so sorry, Jackie" Hyde told her as he stepped forward, but she backed up the same distance.

"I know" she nodded once, "and I think you're right, at least I hope so" she said, managing a half-smile, "I do think we're destined to be together, I so want that to be true" she told him, "It's just, it's going to take me a little time to deal with this"

"I get it" Hyde said softly, feeling stupidly emotional, just wanting to get out of here as fast as possibly, "I can walk away for now, because I know what I said was right. We're destined, Jackie, it's fate. Maybe before I thought all that stuff was just crazy and stupid, but man, I believe it now" he told her, "One day we'll be together, even if I have to wait for Donna and Eric's wedding, or our ten year reunion, I'll do it, man. I'll wait for you"

Jackie's eyes watered with tears of pure emotion, not sadness or pain now, more of simply being so touched by the words her boyfriend was saying to her, even if some of it didn't make total sense.

Once in a while, when they were alone, Hyde would say such beautiful things, the gang just didn't know how totally romantic and sweet he could be, but then he didn't want them to know. She was the only one who saw the softer side he kept deep hidden most of the time, the side he was letting out now, so much it even surprised her.

"You don't have to wait that long" she said suddenly, voice breaking as she rushed forward into his arms and hugged him tight.

In moments, her lips sought out his and they kissed, a true kiss of love that neither could deny.

"I really am sorry, Jackie" he repeated when they parted, so close their foreheads were still touching.

"I know" she said softly, "Just please don't ever hurt me like that again"

"I promise" he assured her as they continued kissing each other.

From up above they could almost hear the soft laughter of an angel, congratulating himself on a job well done. He'd realigned the fates of two of God's unlikely favourites, and nothing could ever come between them again.

They'd be alright now.

* * *

The End

* * *


End file.
